Advent – A Time of Reflection and Anticipation

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming”

With hearts full of joy and great anticipation, we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Now is the time to quiet ourselves and be still so that we can hear the whisper of His voice.  In quiet surroundings, we hear what it is God wants us to know.  Though we may try to slow our pace, being still away from the noise of the world can be very difficult.  For many, life has presented different hardships that call for a different kind of waiting.  Waiting for prayers to be answered.  For loved ones to get well.  Waiting for the will to walk again after losing a loved one in senseless tragedy.

Perhaps, it is waiting for a heart of forgiveness to enter.  Even at this blessed time of year, we may have just enough strength to ask God to “give us our daily bread” as the Lord teaches us in His prayer.

Condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler, Father Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest wrote these words about Advent in a Nazi prison in 1945.

He said, “Advent is a time of inner security, because we have received a message. To be alive is to believe in the golden seed of God that the angels have scattered and still offer to open hearts.  Walk through these gray days as an announcing messenger!  So many need their courage strengthened, so many are in despair and in need of consolation, there is so much harshness that needs a gentle hand and an illuminating word. Understanding this world in the light of Advent means to endure in faith and waiting for the abundance in the coming harvest.  Not because we put our trust in the earth but because we have heard God’s message and have met one of God’s announcing angels ourselves.”  

Advent reminds us about the hope we have in the promise of Christ.

That he came into the world once, in ultimate humility for our salvation, and will come again.  Just as Advent’s John the Baptist cried out to prepare the way for the One whose sandals he was not worthy to unfasten, the door is open for us to experience the blessings in the coming of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

But we must be awake and ready for his coming.  And so, in the words of Father Delp, “Let us then live in today’s Advent, for it is the time of promise.  The fact that the Son of Man shall come is more than a historic prophecy; it is also a decree that God’s coming and the shaking up of humanity are connected.  It is time for each of us to go to work, with unshakable sureness that the Lord will come again, to set our life in God’s order.”

We have hope in knowing that Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, became man and overcame the world – for us.

He promises never to leave us – even until the end of time.

This is Advent’s hope. The hope we find in Advent’s waiting.  No matter what is before us, Christ is always with us.

Hope in the star of Bethlehem and follow it.

      “The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Lk 3:5-6).